Last Call: MoMA's Closing, and Changing
MoMA的变革与新生
NEW YORK — The Museum of Modern Art is slouching toward a shutdown starting June 15, in order to complete its latest expansion — which is really an attempt to fix the last one. With the museum on the brink of change, the art and architecture critics of The New York Times took the occasion to revisit favorite (or famous) artworks, review shows not yet covered and consider the implications of the ghost in the machine — the loss of the American Folk Art Museum, once next door but now part of the Modern's new footprint.
纽约——纽约现代艺术博物馆（The Museum of Modern Art，简称MoMA）从6月15日起暂时关闭，以完成新的规模扩张——而这实际上是为了修补上一次扩张带来的问题。在这座博物馆处于变革边缘之际，《纽约时报》的艺术与建筑评论家借此机会回溯了一些最受喜爱（或最著名）的艺术品，重新审视了一些此前的评论未能涵盖的展览，并探讨美国民俗艺术博物馆(American Folk Art Museum)的“幽魂”意味着什么——在MoMA的新蓝图中，这家曾坐落在隔壁的博物馆将成为它的一部分。
Over the next four months, the museum will cut six openings in its western wall to connect three floors of new galleries to existing ones, and will install the largest-ever display of its vast permanent collection, a feat that curators have been planning for years.
接下来四个月里，MoMA将在其西墙开凿六个出口，将新的三层画廊与现有建筑连接起来。以外，馆长准备多年的一项壮举也将得以实现，博物馆将设置迄今为止最大规模的永久馆藏展品陈列。
We are told that when the museum reopens on Oct. 21, after its $450 million overhaul, it will be physically more comfortable, allow better traffic flow, offer free access to the ground floor and its new galleries, and add about 40,000 square feet for the permanent collection. But most important, the story of modernism as we know it — linear and dominated by European male geniuses — will be radically revised, expanded and rendered more inclusive.
据悉，这次耗资4.5亿美元的大型翻修完成后，博物馆将于10月21日重新开放，届时它将变得更舒适，能容纳更大的参观流量，整个地面层和新建的画廊都将对公众免费开放，新增大约4万平方英尺的面积用于陈列永久馆藏。但最重要的是，我们所熟知的现代主义历史——由欧洲男性天才主导的单线叙事将被彻底改变、延展、变得更有包容性。
In preparation for the closing, MoMA has already dismantled its permanent collection galleries on the fourth floor and slightly reconfigured those on the fifth in a way that foreshadows some changes to come. Assessing what remains on view, like tea leaves, provides a moment to think about MoMA's past, present and future, and above all the challenges it faces.
在为闭馆做准备工作的过程中，MoMA已经拆除了位于四层的永久馆藏展厅，并且重新布置了五层的一些展厅，预示一些变化即将来到。浏览这些留下来的展品，就好像在进行一场茶叶占卜似的，我们可以借此机会好好思考一下MoMA的过去、现在和未来， 以及最重要的——它正面临的那些挑战。
Even before you enter the fifth-floor galleries, there are gestures large and small to consider. In mid-April, with less than two months to shutdown, MoMA went to the trouble of installing Jennifer Bartlett's 1975-76 magnum opus, "Rhapsody," in the atrium. A preparator's nightmare in the form of 987 12-inch steel tiles that perfectly fit the long walls of that yawning space, this jubilant battle of artistic styles and mindset covers stark geometric abstraction, paint-by-numbers realism and everything in between. It looks ever more prescient and in some ways exemplifies the pluralism that MoMA needs to aim for in its next life.
就算还没进入五层画廊，大大小小的暗示也已经早就随处可见了。在四月中旬，还有不到两个月就要闭馆的时候，MoMA在试图将詹妮弗·巴特莱特(Jennifer Bartlett)创作于1975至76年的巨作《狂想曲》(“Rhapsody”)安装在中庭时遇到了麻烦。将987片12英寸的铁片完美地嵌入那个巨大空间长长的墙壁上，堪称布展者的噩梦。这是一场艺术风格与思维模式的欢快较量，涵盖了鲜明的几何抽象主义、数字绘画现实主义以及方方面面。它看起来是如此具有预示性，并且某种程度上展现了MoMA在转世新生后需要关注的多元主义。
A small hint at the possibilities can be found near the fifth floor escalator, where "Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, Pardons a Sentry," by Horace Pippin, the great self-taught African American painter, hangs beside "Christina's World," by the white realist painter Andrew Wyeth and one of the Modern's most popular paintings. This should bode well for the increased visibility and equal status of self-taught and folk artists, whose work had a big role in MoMA's early years. It's also time to end this sidelining of American art from before World War II. It should be mixed in with art from Europe and beyond.
在五层的电梯附近我们能找到一个关于未来可能性的小小提示。在那里，自学成才的著名美籍非裔画家霍拉斯·皮平(Horace Pippin)的作品《伟大的解放者亚伯拉罕·林肯赦免一名哨兵》(“Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, Pardons a Sentry”)被悬挂在白人现实主义画家安德鲁·魏斯(Andrew Wyeth)的《克里斯蒂娜的世界》(“Christina's World”)旁边，后者是MoMA最受欢迎的绘画作品之一。这对自学成才和来自民间艺术家来说应该是个好兆头，意味着他们的关注度和地位都在提高，这些艺术家的作品曾在MoMA的早年岁月发挥了重要作用。也是时候不再将二战前的美国本土艺术边缘化了，它应该与欧洲和其他地区的艺术融合在一起。
The collection, as now installed in the fifth-floor galleries, is something of a stopgap measure, highly truncated, that starts with the standard hits of post-impressionism and cubism and Matisse and ends with Jasper Johns' 1958 flag, becoming more inclusive in terms of nonwhite, nonmale artists as it proceeds. It is a snapshot of a collection in flux, looking at once full of possibility and a little forlorn.
目前被安置于五层画廊中的展品更像是一种过渡时期的权宜之计，它被高度浓缩，起始于后印象派、立体主义和马蒂斯(Matisse)的经典名作，以贾斯培·琼斯(Jasper Johns)创作于1958年的《三面旗》收尾，在一路深入展览的进程中，更多非白人、非男性艺术家的作品被包含进来，显得更加多元。这是处于变化之中的馆藏品的缩影，看上去充满可能，也带着一丝孤独。
In some places you'll see MoMA trying to bend its linear view of history toward the justice, and reality, of this more complex view. But it is going to take some doing.
在一些地方你能看出，MoMA试图把自己线性的历史观朝着公正、接近现实，更为复杂的观念上靠拢。但这并不容易。

The absence of art by women in the first six galleries is breathtaking. The only exception to the unrelieved maleness is Sonia Delaunay-Terk's fiery 1915 "Portuguese Market," acquired in 1955.
MoMA的前六个展厅中，女性艺术家作品的缺失令人震惊。在男性艺术家作品包围之中，唯一的例外是索尼娅·德劳内-特克(Sonia Delaunay-Terk)创作于1915年的作品《葡萄牙集市》“Portuguese Market”，它于1955年被收入MoMA。
In the collection's next iteration, a mixing of mediums has been promised and this may help the paucity of female artists: For example, according to its collection as listed online, MoMA has no painting by Marie Laurencin, but it has several of her prints and drawings that could be installed in the new order of things. MoMA owns nothing at all, as listed online, by Gabriele Münter, a talented German expressionist painter (and Kandinsky's companion). Perhaps MoMA might sell or trade some Picassos to acquire work by female artists from this crucial"heroic" period, perhaps the biggest challenge the museum faces. Blasphemous as selling Picassos may sound, it would not only create a better balance of the sexes but also adjust the scales in a collection heavily weighted toward Picasso. (MoMA lists 1,241 Picasso works online, compared to 385 by Matisse and 46 by Braque.) And selling Picassos would not be new. A catalog of deaccessions assembled by the artist Michael Asher, indicates MoMA sold 20 Picasso paintings between 1929 and 1998.
经过迭代的馆藏将包含更多种类的介质，这也许有助于改善女性艺术家作品缺失的现状。举例来说，MoMA公开在网上的馆藏名单里并不包括任何玛丽·洛朗森(Marie Laurencin)的画作，但有一些她的版画和素描，这些作品可能出现在新的展览中。在线馆藏列表还显示，MoMA没有收藏任何加布里埃尔·穆特(Gabriele Münter)的作品，她是一位才华横溢的德国印象派画家（也是康定斯基[Kandingsky]的伴侣）。也许MoMA可以通过出售或者交易一些毕加索(Picasso)的作品换取一些出自这个重要的“英雄”时期的女性艺术家的杰作，这也许是博物馆所面临的最大挑战。尽管卖掉毕加索作品这个主意听上去大为不敬，但这样做不仅可以在性别上取得更好的平衡，也能调整博物馆馆藏对毕加索作品的过分倚重。（MoMA在线列出的馆藏中有1241件毕加索作品，与之相比，马蒂斯的作品数量是385件，布拉克[Braque]则是46件。）而且出售毕加索的作品并非新鲜事。一份由艺术家迈克尔·亚瑟(Michael Asher)整理的博物馆藏品出售目录显示，在1929到1998年间，MoMA卖出了20件毕加索画作。
You don't see another painting by a woman until the seventh gallery, where Russian constructivist Varvara Stepanova's weirdly brushy yet angular "Figure" of 1921 (acquired in 1941) shares a corner with Sophie Tauber-Arp's abstract "Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angles" from 1930 (acquired 1983). And the display finally departs the European continent with "Colorhythm 1," by Venezuelan artist Alejandro Otero, a 1955 painting on wood acquired with alacrity in 1956, and "Planes in Modulated Surface 4" by Brazilian artist Lygia Clark. Her work in Formica and industrial paint on wood was made in 1957 but didn't reach MoMA until 1983.
直到抵达第七展厅你才能再次见到女性艺术家的作品。在那里，俄罗斯构成主义艺术家瓦尔瓦拉·斯捷潘诺娃(Varvara Stepanova)创作于1921年（MoMA在1941年收入）的怪异而棱角分明的作品《人像》(“Figure”)与苏菲·陶伯-阿尔普(Sophie Tauber-Arp)1930年（收入于1983年）的抽象主义作品《圆和重叠角度的构图》(“Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angles”)被置放在同一个角落。委内瑞拉艺术家亚力桑卓·奥特罗(Alejadro Otero)的《色彩韵律 作品1号》“Colorhythm 1”）和巴西艺术家丽吉娅·克拉克(Lygia Clark)的作品《调制表面上的平面 作品4号》(“Planes in Modulated Surface 4”)则让展览终于不再局限于欧洲大陆。奥特罗这幅画在木头上的作品创作于1955年，次年即被MoMA收入；克拉克用胶木和工业涂料在木头上完成的作品创作于1957年，但直到1983年才被MoMA纳入收藏。
In the final fifth-floor galleries, devoted primarily to painting from the 1950s and '60s, and surrealism, the cavalcade of male innovation is disrupted by Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Meret Oppenheim, Frida Kahlo and Louise Bourgeois along with recent acquisitions by artists of color like Norman Lewis and Beauford Delaney. Kazuo Shiraga, known for painting with his feet, is represented by a muscular, lava-like swoosh of red from 1964. Acquired this year, it makes Barnett Newman's robust abstract expressionist classic "Vir Heroicus Sublimis" look frail.
在五层最后的几个展厅里，展示的重点放在了1950年代和60年代的画作和超现实主义作品上，虽然创新浪潮仍由男性主导，但李·克拉斯纳(Lee Krasner)、海伦·弗兰肯瑟勒(Helen Frankenthaler)、梅列特·奥本海默(Helen Frankenthaler)、弗里达·卡罗(Frida Kahlo)和露易丝·布尔乔亚(Louise Bourgeois)这样的女性艺术家以及诺曼·刘易斯(Norman Lewis)、博福德·德莱尼(Beauford Delaney)这样的有色人种艺术家仍然占据了一席之地，后者的作品新近被MoMA收入馆藏。来自白发一雄(Kazuo Shiraga)作品《无题》创作于1964年，它笔触刚健，呈现出如熔浆般绚烂的一湍鲜红。白发一雄以用脚作画而闻名，他的这幅作品今年刚刚被收入，令巴内特·纽曼(Barnett Newman)的抽象表现主义经典之作《英雄而崇高的人》(“Vir Heroicus Sublimis”)相形之下显得脆弱。
One of the most striking new sights in this area is "The Moon," an abstract landscape by Brazilian modernist Tarsila do Amaral, from 1928 but decades ahead of its time and also acquired this year. Just outside the galleries, you can't miss Faith Ringgold's hair-raising "American People Series #20: Die" made in 1967, a year of widespread race riots in America. It was acquired a half-century after it was painted.
这个展区里最具冲击力的新景象来自巴西现代主义画家塔尔希拉·多·阿玛拉尔(Tarsila do Amaral)的抽象派风景画《月亮》(“The Moon”)。这幅作品创作于1928年，却远远超越了当时那个时代，它也同样是今年刚被收入。走出画廊你就会立刻被费斯·林格尔德(Faith Ringgold)创作于1967年的令人毛骨悚然的作品《美国人民系列 #20: 死亡》(“American People Series #20: Die”)所牢牢吸引，那正是种族主义骚乱席卷全美的一年。这幅作品在它问世半个世纪以后被博物馆收入馆藏。
MoMA's imminent closing and reopening casts everything now on view in an unusual light. You can see the future bearing down on the museum's fabulous if blinkered past, which is about to be stretched and rearranged. The question of how profoundly and effectively this will be done should keep us on the edge of our seats all summer.
MoMA的关闭和即将到来的重新开放令人们以一种不寻常的眼光看待当下的一切。你能看到这家博物馆卓越但也有其局限性的历史正面临冲击，将被拓展和重新布局。而MoMA将如何深刻而有效地实现这些改变，会让我们在这一整个夏天里拭目以待。